Am I Dreaming? My Grandmother Loves this Book?!

I have long since been a fan of erotic novels, but a lot of my friends had never read them, and were surprised to hear that I read them frequently. Then one day I was looking through the best seller lists and decided to try 50 Shades of Grey, which to be honest I had no idea what it was about. I was going solely on the fact that it was a top seller.

When I started realizing what the book was about, I was shocked. Not to say I wasn’t excited (in more ways than one) but I never thought that a book of this nature would have the ability to go main stream. Erotic novels have been around for a long time, but have always been a bit of a taboo subject. Then I find out that my mother is reading it, and even my grandmother had a copy. I thought once they realized what it was about, they would put it down in shock, but that wasn’t the case.

So what is it about this book that has females around the world hanging off every word? The author is no Shakespeare, so what is it?

Why Women Love the Fantasy of Being Dominated

The fantasies played out in this book are some of my favorites, but I didn’t think so many people were on my side with that. The book can be a bit extreme. The male character essentially dominates the woman both physically and emotionally. In a world where women strive for equal rights, why is this such a popular fantasy?

When it comes to sexual fantasies, men frequently love to act them out. They love having their woman dress up in a nurse costume and give them a bath which leads to sex. Or have a woman dress up in leather and force him into sex.

Women, however, more often prefer to live out their fantasies in their head. The thought of a powerful man doing with her what he pleases, can be a very erotic fantasy. The fact is, however, that if a man were to treat her like that in real life, emotions would be set loose, and she may begin to feel degraded and even dirty.

Unlike men, women are, for the most part, very emotionally attached to their sexual encounters. Men can easily separate sex from emotion (explains why they cheat more, doesn’t it?) while women hold it close.

Essentially, this book has allowed women to act out that fantasy through another woman (the character in the book). Her own personal emotions were not damaged, but the images were vivid, and she may have felt as if she was really there. So what does this mean? Will we see a major increase in purchases of whips, chains and shackles? Probably not, but perhaps the erotic novels will finally get the readers so many of them deserve.